Kant's Impact on Moral Philosophy

Immanuel Kant introduced a new paradigm into modern moral philosophy, first with his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals in 1785, followed by his Critique of Practical Reason in 1788, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason in 1793, and Metaphysics of Morals in 1798. For Kant, the fundamental goal of morality is not the realization of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, under some interpretation of that formula, but the realization of human autonomy governed by pure reason in the form of the "categorical imperative." Kant's ideal of autonomy is nothing less than the greatest possible freedom of each human being to set his or her own ends compatible with the equal freedom of every other human being to do the same. As Kant put it in lectures to his own students, freedom "not restrained under certain rules . . . is the most terrible thing there could ever be," but the condition "under which alone the greatest use of freedom is possible, and under which it can be self-consistent" is the "essential end of humankind" and the "inner worth of the world." Kant's work immediately drew the attention of both critics and supporters. While some argued that Kant's…

Издательство

Oxford University Press

Год

2024

Страниц

683

Язык

английский

ISBN

9780198906865